Elista Finals round four: GM Mihail Marin comments

6/11/2007 – Another day of dramatic, exciting chess in Elista. Sergei Rublevsky defeated Alexander Grischuk to equalise in this match, while the other three games were tough, hard-fought draws. Our GM commentator's commentary is less extensive, since he is himself preparing for a strong tournament. But you will get it in full in ChessBase Magazine. For now here are the highlights of round four.

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The Finals of the Candidates Matches for the 2007 World Chess Championship
Tournament are being held in Elista, Russia, from June 6th to June 14, 2007.
Eight candidates advanced from the first stage and are now playing six-game
matches to fill four places in the 2007
World Championship in Mexico City.

The following express commentary was provided by Romanian GM Mihail Marin,
who is the author of a number of very popular ChessBase training CDs and articles
for ChessBase Magazine. GM Marin will study the games of the Candidates Finals
in greater detail and provide the full results of his analysis in the next issue
of ChessBase
Magazine.

Candidates Finals: Round four commentary

By GM Mihail Marin

Starting with today, my comments will become less comprehensive. I have a good
reason for that: quite soon, I will participate in the Spanish team championship,
where the expected rating average of my opponents corresponds ‚to the
18th cathegory. One does not play against Svidler and Ivanchuk every day, and
I feel I should be doing some preparation for this special occasion. However,
I will analyze the most interesting games from the remaining rounds in Elista
in greater detail for the next issue of ChessBase Magazine.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6. Rublevsky wisely deviates
from 5.Be3, which led to plain equality in the second game. Generally, he is
known for having a stable and narrow repertoire. However, just as in the third
game, he proves that he can display flexibility in choosing his opening variations
for such an important event as the Candidates' Matches. 5...Qf6

14.bxc3! An important novelty. Earlier this year, Rublevsky won a game
after 14.Bg5 Bxb2+ 15.Kb1 Rublevsky-Tkachiev, Poikovsky 2007. We can understand
Grischuk from being ready to repeat this line. It is obvious that Black will get
ample compensation for the queen that he has to sacrifice in view of the threatened
mate on d8. 14...0-0 15.Qg5 Nf5 16.Qxf6 gxf6 17.Bf4

22.Nfe5. In order to prove an advantage, White has to exchange one of
the knights defending the c5-square and then occupy it with the d3-knight. The
main (and, possibly, better) alternative to the text move was 22.Nd2 . Gelfand
might have feared the piece sacrifice 22...Nxf2 23.Nxf2 Bxe3 but after 24.Nf3
Rae8 25.Bf1 White seems to be able to stabilize the situation to his favour. 22...Nxe5
23.dxe5 Rxe5! However, this sacrifice is entirely sound. 24.Nxe5 Qxe5 25.Bf3
Re8 26.Bxe4 Qxe4. Black has entirely adequate compensation for the sacrificed
exchange. White will not be able to breakthrough on the queenside. Instead, he
will have to prepare to open play in the centre in a way or another. Until then,
Black will have to put as much pressure as possible on the white kingside in order
to keep the balance even. 27.Bc5 Bg5 28.Qd3 Qe6 29.Bd4 Be7 30.Rdc1 h5 31.Qd2
Bd6 32.b4 f6 33.Qd3 Kf7 34.Bc5 Bb8 35.f3 Bc8 36.Re2 h4 37.Qc3 h3 38.g3 Bd7 39.Rce1
g5 40.e4 dxe4 41.Rxe4 Qa2 42.R1e2 Qb1+ 43.Re1 Qa2 44.R1e2 Qb1+ 45.Qe1 Qxe1+ 46.Rxe1
Be6

43...Kf6!! After a long thought, Aronian finds an excellent practical
chance. In case of 43...Kg6 44.Rb8 Nd6 45.Rb6 it wold be all over. 44.Rxh5
Ng5! 45.f4. White has no time to activate his rook with 45.Rh8 because
of 45...Nf3 when he would have to part with the bishop. 45...Nf7 46.g4 Kg6

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.